102
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Bourchiers, Little Dunmow,has one, shot there on May 7th, 1867. At the sale of the
late Mr.Troughton, of Coventry, in 1869, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., purchased and still
has a young male labelled, " shot in Essex by Mr. Maclaren." Dr. Bree records
a fine male shot at Copford on April 29th, 1870 (29. May 7, and 32a), adding,
" Colonel Hawkins has just informed me that he saw one in the woods at Alresford
a few days ago." On June 16th, 1874, a fine pair, which were doubtless about to
breed, were shot in the rectory garden at Bradwell-juxta-Mare (29. June 27). One
was shot at Dudbrook about 1882 (Scruby). On May 22nd, 1883, our foreman
at Lindsell Hall shot a female on a tall ash-tree in the orchard there, after it had
been about for several days. Its loud sonorous whistling note had disturbed the
congregation in the adjoining church on the previous Sunday. Its mate was not
seen or heard (40. vii, 335).
Mr. Fitch writes (50. i. 113) on June 9th, 1887 :
" I was pleased this morning to see a male Oriole fly out of a tall hedge by
the roadside, almost opposite my Mosklyns farm-house [Purleigh], I was on
horseback and followed it, gently flushing it twice along the road towards Haze-
leigh. It eventually took refuge in my little Box-iron Grove, where I trust, if it
has a mate, it may continue. One midsummer holidays, about eighteen years ago, I
saw an Oriole twice or thrice at Wixoe in Suffolk and at Baythorne End, Essex.
I well remember seeing it on both sides of the river."
Mr. Fitch informs me that he saw the male again, but never its mate, always
near the same spot, for a week or two after the date named. There can, therefore,
be very little doubt that there was a nest. A fine adult male was shot by Mr. A.
S. Pearson in the parish of Belchamp Walter, on May 2nd, 1888. No other was
seen about, either at the time or afterwards, and it bore no evidence of having ever
been caged. It was preserved by Mr. Rose of Sudbury, and now belongs to the
Rev. Mr. Leaky of Acton, Suffolk (50. ii. 72). Mr. Capel Hanbury records that
he observed one feeding on the haws of a large white-thorn bush in company with
some blackbirds and thrushes on November 20th, 1888 (29. Dec. 8th), but the date
suggests that the bird seen belonged to some other species. Mr. Travis preserved
a fine male caught at Elmdon by some labourers under a hedge where it was
driven by a high wind, in June, 1888. Mr. Smoothy informs me that a gentleman
saw one several times in his garden at Sandon early in May, 1889. Yarrell
says (30. i. 241) several "have been taken in Kent and Essex."
There is no thoroughly satisfactory record of its having bred in Essex, but Mr.
Hope informs me that the late Mrs. Lescher, of Boyle's Court, Brentwood, who
resided many years ago at Warley Place, could recollect more than one
instance of their breeding there; and the Rev. G. C. Green, of Modbury,
Devon, in his Collections and Recollections of Natural History and Sport (London,
1884), says :
"There are, I fancy, very few recorded instances of the Golden Oriole breeding
in England, and few people have ever seen this bird upon its nest. My wife, how-
ever, can count herself among those privileged few. When she was quite a little
girl, she was living at Tiptofts, near Saffron Walden, in Essex, the house of her
uncle, T. W. Gayton, Esq. It was a very old house, surrounded by a moat, and was
in the midst of its own grounds, entirely away from all other habitations. * * * It
was rather a celebrated place, having formerly [it is said] been attacked in vain for
fourteen nights by Dick Turpin's gang. Near to the moat grew a clump of fir trees,
and in one of these, in the year 1841, a pair of Golden Orioles built their nest.
One of my wife's uncles was well acquainted with the names and habits of birds,
and he soon discovered the presence of the illustrious strangers, and told his
niece what they were, and the gardener used frequently to lift up the ' little girl'
to seethe beautiful bird upon its nest. They were zealously guarded and I have
every reason to suppose that they brought off their young safely ; but I was but a